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5 things WWE RAW got right this week - The Fiend possesses a former Champion; Superstar denied entry into the Royal Rumble

By Ali Akber Habib
Modified Jan 19, 2021 17:45 IST
Alexa Bliss wasn't herself in the ring on WWE RAW
Alexa Bliss wasn't herself in the ring on WWE RAW

Goldberg was scheduled to appear on The Dirt Sheet, hosted by The Miz and John Morrison, on WWE RAW this week. While some fans were excited to see what Goldberg had planned for the segment, WWE relied on the good old bait-and-switch policy to take the segment forward.

Shayna Baszler competed in another match against Mandy Rose during WWE RAW, while Charlotte Flair competed against Peyton Royce. Randy Orton appeared in a segment to talk about the injuries he suffered last week and blamed The Fiend for what happened.

Apart from that, Ricochet and RETRIBUTION got a couple of big matches during RAW, while Alexa Bliss competed against RAW Women’s Champion Asuka in a non-title match.

After watching what happened on RAW this week, let’s take a look at the 5 things WWE got right during the show.

#5 Riddle teams up with The Lucha House Party against The Hurt Business on WWE RAW

Riddle was confronted by The Hurt Business backstage on WWE RAW. The former NXT Tag Team Champion tried to play it nicely, before passing a remark toward Bobby Lashley. The All-Mighty attacked Riddle’s foot and injured it with a stomp.

Riddle partnered with The Lucha House Party later on, to take on Cedric Alexander, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley. The Hurt Business was dominant at first, but the rift between Alexander and Benjamin forced them on the back foot.

The All-Mighty took matters into his own hands and brought his team back into the contest. MVP wasn’t too pleased watching the RAW Tag Team Champions quarrel during the match, and talked them into getting in focus again.

The Original Bro no-sold his foot injury after he got into the ring late in the match, and almost picked up the victory for his team. Gran Metalik made his way into the ring but was outdone by the United States Champion who picked up the victory on WWE RAW for The Hurt Business.

Riddle caught Lashley with a kick before bailing, to keep their rivalry alive. This was a solid match that allowed WWE RAW to further build on the rift between the members of The Hurt Business. While there seems to be no solid reason why Alexander would argue with Benjamin, it seems like MVP has some plan for the faction.

Riddle remains in the United States Championship picture despite the loss, and it seems like WWE may give him a shot at the title at the Royal Rumble to keep him out of the 30-man match, that will likely see the return of Seth Rollins.

#4 Lacey Evans continued her alliance with Ric Flair on WWE RAW

Peyton Royce hasn’t had too many matches to show her true talent on WWE RAW. On this week’s show, Royce got a big opportunity to shine against Charlotte Flair. While the opportunity was there, Royce was messy in the ring and did not perform as well as expected.

Flair took advantage of Royce’s inexperience and targeted her leg before making her submit to the Figure-Eight leg lock. While the match was decent, it was the interruption from Ric Flair and Lacey Evans that was the real talking point on WWE RAW.

Flair and Evans were interviewed before the match and The Sassy Southern Belle was not too interested in gossip. Later on, the two Superstars interrupted the match and Evans came out wearing Flair’s gown to mock The Queen.

The segment helped Evans get over once again, and also allowed Royce to compete in a longer match against a former Champion. The exposure will help both women, and it will likely lead to a major push for Evans on WWE RAW.

#3 RETRIBUTION’s Mace scored a victory over The New Day’s Xavier Woods on WWE RAW

The tension between Kofi Kingston and Mustafa Ali is pretty well known. WWE RAW decided to pick on that storyline and played a pre-recorded interview from Ali. The leader of RETRIBUTION claimed that he wanted to hurt Xavier Woods and Kingston.

Woods came out for a match against Mace, and Ali decided to get in the face of The New Day member before the match. Woods replied with a fist to the face and continued that aggression into the match.

Woods kept the advantage over Mace and even hit Ali was a baseball slide outside the ring. However, the numbers advantage helped Mace keep the upper hand and hit Woods with a messy spin-out fireman's carry slam for the win.

While the finish wasn’t too great, the victory allowed Mace to move forward. The New Day has nothing to lose at this point, and WWE RAW can benefit from having RETRIBUTION go after the former RAW Tag Team Champions.

The bar is set so low for RETRIBUTION that any major rivalry could help them get over, even if they come out on the losing end.

#2 AJ Styles and Ricochet have a solid match on WWE RAW

Every other Superstar on WWE RAW and SmackDown is announcing their entry into the 2021 Royal Rumble. However, just like Drew Gulak, Ricochet too was forced to compete in a match against AJ Styles to earn the opportunity.

While logic failed here, it was good to have these two skilled competitors enter the ring together again. Ricochet was confident and took the fight to the former WWE Champion. The two men have had several matches on WWE RAW before, and the chemistry was there to make this the match of the night.

Styles prepared to hit The Phenomenal Forearm but The One and Only turned it into the Recoil for a near fall. The two men fought on the ropes before Styles bounced Ricochet off the top rope and hit him with the Styles Clash for the win.

The match was great, but there were a few flaws in the build-up to it. However, Styles got another opportunity to stay on top while Ricochet got a major match after his story with RETRIBUTION that ended up going nowhere on WWE RAW.

Will Ricochet still get a chance to appear during the 2021 Royal Rumble and possibly eliminate Styles from the match?

#1 Alexa Bliss’ magic on WWE RAW

Alexa Bliss was set to appear on WWE RAW this week and also compete against Asuka in a non-title match. Bliss hosted The Empress of Tomorrow in Alexa’s Playground and also announced that she would enter the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

While Asuka tried to play nice with Bliss, The Goddess scared her enough into walking away. Later in the night, the WWE RAW Women’s Champion came out for her first singles match since early December. Bliss too competed in her first match since late November and tried to fit into her new role in the ring perfectly.

Asuka managed to get some offense in early on, before the lights went out and it seemed like The Fiend possessed Bliss’ body once they came back on. Bliss performed The Fiend’s signature moves before hitting the RAW Women’s Champion with Sister Abigail to pick up a huge victory.

The match was decent and gave Bliss a chance to rise above the rest. She could potentially become the next contender to the RAW Women’s Championship, and it’ll be interesting to watch if she stays at the forefront once The Fiend returns.

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